The invention deals with a side dam for the lateral closing off of the casting cavity of a continuous casting machine, said side dam consisting of elements that are linked in a chain like manner, which join together between the walls of the mold, close off the cavity and travel along with the casting, whereby the path of motion of the side dam lies in a plane which is parallel to the planes of the mold walls in the area of the casting cavity.
Usually, side dams for the above mentioned purpose consist of an endless, flexible steel strip or wire cable to which cuboid shaped blocks are fastened. The proportions of the blocks are around 40 to 60 mm length, 40 to 60 mm width, and their hight corresponds to the thickness of the strip or billet to be cast.(Hermann, Handbuch des Stranggiessens, p. 49, drawing 140, 142)
Conventional side dams are considered as wearing parts, whereby their production is costly, and handling and installation in the casting machine are extremely inconvenient.
The endless side dams of most of the continuous casting machines circulate in the same plane as the mold wall elements. The inner surfaces that limit the casting cavity laterally must therefore be level, so that the elements can leave the plane of the cast strip transversally at the point where the elements change their direction of motion on the exit side of the machine U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,342,251 and 3,865,176 and FR-A No. 1 043 135 and Patent Abstracts of Japan, volume 9, No. 67 (M-366) (1970), Mar. 27 1985; JP-A No. 59 199 154).
It has been suggested to arrange for the side dams to move in a plane parallel to the mold's plane of motion in the area of the casting cavity (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,640,235 and 4,632,176). The individual elements of the side dam are thereby rigidly connected to links of a chain, which is led over deflection pulleys or chain wheels on the entry and the exit side of the the casting cavity. This design neither allows optimum guidance nor best sealing effect. Furthermore it does not allow an optimum motion of the side dam elements in the area of the casting cavity and at the same time in the area of the element's changing of direction. Particularly, there is a pending danger that the hind edges of the elements, in reference to the direction of their motion, will penetrate into the cast product on the exit side of the machine.